Harry Targ
The 2026 conference, Spirit of 1776: Advancing Opportunity, Innovation, and Free Markets, is September 29-30 on Purdue University’s West Lafayette campus announced:
“In recognition of the 250th anniversary of the United States,
the conference will examine the political, philosophical, and historical
foundations of freedom and capitalism and explore their enduring impact on
innovation, entrepreneurship, opportunity, and principled leadership.
Through thought-provoking presentations and discussions,
attendees will engage with ideas that continue to shape business and society
today”
https://business.purdue.edu/events/cornerstone/schedule-of-events.php
https://business.purdue.edu/events/cornerstone/speakers.php
Some Thoughts
As we have listened to the debate about the salience of the building of a semiconductor factory, SK Hynix, in our community for economic development reasons, I was reminded of similar promises by leaders of both parties as to economic growth which is in stark contrast with the realization that for years almost half of Hoosier families have been living at or below a livable wage. Data indicates that Indiana politics and economics and the "free market" currying of big investors has not worked for most Hoosiers. It is time to listen to those who call for investment in schools, healthcare, local businesses, and repairing our environment. There are no quick fixes but the economic model preached in higher education and government does not work for the vast majority of working people.
Purdue Today posted
announcements of conferences in 2025 and
2026 (see above) co-sponsored by its business and liberal arts colleges. While
we should celebrate the communications of all bodies of scholarship (aside from
clearly the voices of those who celebrate racism, sexism, and nativism), it is
worthy, in this time of reflection about higher education, to be clear about
the differences between ideology and empirical reality.
One keynote speaker at
the 2025 conference indicated her expectations: “My hope is that everyone in
attendance will leave the conference with a better understanding of the
uniqueness of the American capitalistic system and a renewed commitment to
ensuring that the American ideals of freedom and capitalism are inherited by
the next generation,”
Attendees at the 2025 heard
speakers from The National Review Institute, The National Constitution Center,
the Liberty Fund, and the Mercatus Center had "a deep discussion about free
markets and morality.” 2026 keynote speakers from the American Enterprise
Institute and the Business RoundTable will share a similar perspective.
The 2026 Conference was
advertised as the “Cornerstone for Business.” Cornerstone refers to the
much-touted transformation of what used to be a vibrant program in Liberal Arts
to a pastiche of courses that are alleged to be interdisciplinary. The 2025 conference
and the upcoming one seek to integrate the business school with what was left
of liberal arts at Purdue University.
While diversity of perspectives on a university campus is commendable, one wonders if these conferences are not so much about scholarship and reflection as about the promotion of a narrow economic ideology.
For example, data below
indicates that majorities of working people in Indiana have not been
beneficiaries of the “market,” the “pursuit of profit,” and economic
concentration. In fact, as the United Way survey mentioned below suggests
almost 40 percent of Hoosiers struggle to get by economically. It could be
added that there has been a systematic assault on workers, and their
organizations, for at least 20 years in the politics of the state.
On the Hoosier Economy
Hoosier politicians and corporate/university elites suggest
that the Indiana economy is booming and will only improve with less taxes, more
support for industrial projects like LEAP, and a general reliance on the
"free market." The United Way ALICE reports suggest that economic
circumstances of large percentages of
Hoosiers have worsened over the last decade.
A recent United Way Alice Report suggests that the number of households in Indiana living below a livable income have increased since the last decade.
Previous Data on the Indiana Economy
The centerpiece of Indiana public policy since 2004 has been corporate and individual tax cuts and reduced budgets for education, health care, and other public services. Indiana was one of the first states to begin the privatization of the public sector, including transferring educational funds from public to charter schools. It established a voucher system to encourage parents to send their children to private schools. Also, Indiana sold public roads; privatized public services; and recruited controversial corporations such as Duke Power to support research at the state’s flagship research universities. Meanwhile the manufacturing base of the state shifted from higher paying and unionized industrial labor (automobiles, steel, and durable goods) to lower paying service jobs and non-union work such as at the Amazon distribution center.
The United Way published
a revised ALICE survey in 2020 concluding that “In 2018, eight years after the
end of the Great Recession, 37% of Indiana’s 2,592,262 households still
struggled to make ends meet. And while 13% of these households were living below
the Federal Poverty Level (FPL), another 24% — almost twice as many — were
ALICE households: Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed. These households
earned above the FPL, but not enough to afford basic household necessities.” https://iuw.org/alice/
In 2022 Aaron
Renn wrote that “The Hoosier state has had a Republican governor since Mitch
Daniels was elected in 2004. It has been a Republican “trifecta” state, with
GOP majorities in both houses of the legislature, since 2011… its average disposable
income had actually declined to 89.5 percent of the national level….When
Daniels was elected, Indiana’s per capita disposable income was only 90.5
percent of the U.S. average.” Aaron Renn, "Indiana
under Republican Rule: ‘Pro-Business’ Policy Disappoints outside the
Sunbelt” American Affairs, Winter 2021 / Volume V, Number 4
But a recent Alec (the American Legislative Exchange Council, a Koch Foundation economically libertarian lobby group) co-sponsored study Rich States Poor States says the following: “Indiana is currently ranked 7th in the United States for its economic outlook. This is a forward-looking forecast based on the state’s standing (equal-weighted average) in 15 important state policy variables. Data reflect state and local rates and revenues and any effect of federal deductibility.” The Rich States, Poor States variables used to rank states included personal property, and corporate tax rates, levels of workers compensation, whether the state was a so-called “right to work state’, minimum wage laws, and other pro-business measures. The more beneficial to business, the higher the ranking the state was given. https://www.richstatespoorstates.org/states/IN/
In contradiction to this
ALEC sponsored report, David Ricks, CEO of Eli Lilly said that
“Indiana’s focus for so long, over so many years of Republican leadership, has
been to create a tax climate and a regulatory structure that is friendly enough
to business that companies can’t help but consider Indiana for major projects.”
He referred to national data indicating that the cost of living and business
climate in Indiana were strong but, in his words, “Our education attainment in
the state is not good. The ability to reskill the workforce, I think, could
improve. Health, life and inclusion, overall, I think, conditions rank poorly
nationally in our state. And also workforce preparedness, also related to
reskilling, is a liability for us.” https://www.wishtv.com/news/indiana-news/lilly-ceo-takes-critical-stance-against-indiana-economy/
In Conclusion
In other words,
Indiana’s economy, particularly in the years of Republican one-party rule is
one of prioritized tax cuts, deregulation, privatization, and business
incentives at the expense of education, health care, wages, worker rights, and
public institutions, And this is the contradiction: Indiana being
“currently ranked 7th in the United States for its economic outlook” versus the
dramatic ALICE estimate that 37 percent of Indiana households live below a
livable wage. As Renn summarizes it: “since 2000, the state ranks a
dismal forty-sixth in median wage growth, and the growth in median earnings has
been at only half the rate of the rest of the country. Only 42 percent of
workers in the state earn a living wage (adjusted for cost of living) and have
employer-provided health insurance.”
Assessing a variety of studies over the last several years leads to the conclusion that an evaluation of the current state of the Indiana economy depends upon where one is located in terms of economic, political, or professional position. Those Indiana men, women, and children who come from the 37 percent of households who earn less, at, or slightly above the poverty line probably have a negative view of their futures. For them, the tax breaks for the rich and the austerity policies for the poor are not positive.
And, of course, this
analysis could be coupled with the history of the genocide against Native
peoples, racism, and segregation, and war that have been prominent in US and
Indiana history as the so-called “free market.” In other words, it is incumbent
on the Colleges of Business and Liberal Arts to present a more scholarly
analysis of US economic and political history going beyond celebrating the
“free market” to understanding the American experience.
